SpamStopper

SpamStopper is one of those applications that any webmaster should not be without. It allows you to mask your mailto addresses on the web to make them less accessible to e-mail scraping web-bots. In other words, using SpamStopper should cut down on the amount of Spam you receive as a result of posting a e-mail address on your web-site. The nice thing about SpamStopper is the nnumber of options it gives you. For a long time, the standard response to scrapers was via the use of unicode characters (which work with most/all browsers while shielding the content from many scrapers). Even better, SpamStopper also allows more secure means via javascripts, etc. However, Javascripts will make your site less accessible, as some browsers have that turned off for security. Anyway, as the scrapers evolve, so does SpamStopper. The program is well-maintained and does what it claims to do well. The interface is simple and intuitive. Much commercial software could learn a thing or two. Lastly, using an obfuscating tool like SpamStopper has some negatives. Some web-bots "break" on Unicode and will flood your error log with 404's. Furthermore, SpamStopper is but a single tool. In order to maximize site security, you ought to also use .htaccess, robots.txt, and honeypot files to punish naughty bots.